Tulsa puts away South Carolina State, 90-70
It will be tough to lose with Jared Garcia playing like he did Monday night against South Carolina State.
Garcia had 23 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocked shots, and a steal to lead Tulsa to a 90-70 win in front of 2,791 fans at the Reynolds Center.
The TU win, combined with a 73-72 Missouri loss to Jackson State on Sunday night, gave Tulsa the championship of the Golden Turkey Slam, a 4-team, round-robin tournament. While Mizzou still has to play South Carolina State, Tulsa will be the only team to win both its games.
Tulsa (4-0) defeated Jackson State 72-52 Thursday night. Missouri plays South Carolina State on Wednesday night. So, the All-Tournament team and tourney MVP are not named yet.
The importance of Tulsa being tournament champions is not lost on second-year TU coach Eric Konkol, whose team is one win away from tying last year's win total for the entire season.
“To be able to get two wins and be the only team in this tournament to get two wins means something,” Konkol said. "As we've seen in college basketball, nothing is ever guaranteed in these games.
"This was a good win for us. This is a really good win for our young team to find a way and win the tournament."
Garcia was a dynamo for Tulsa, especially in a first half where TU took a 44-20 lead into halftime. This included a 27-2 run where everything was going right.
That hot first half included Garcia, a 6-9 juco transfer who has started all year at power forward, making 3 of 5 from beyond the arc, and going 5 of 8 from the field, as well as grabbing 3 rebounds.
"As the season goes on, I do what I've got to do to get the (win) for my team," Garcia said.
Coming into the game, Garcia was averaging 7.3 points and 7.7 rebounds, as well as making 2 of 8 on three-pointers.
"It's something we've been looking forward to," Konkol said of Garcia's performance. "He's got such a fluid jump shot. And the ball out of his hands with jump hooks, and around the basket, left hand, right hand.
"Was just really happy for him to get it going, offensively. Because he's certainly capable. Especially from three. This is not a unique thing for him. He just looked comfortable out there. And really happy for him. He was huge tonight."
When Tulsa's second half started getting a little rough, with the Bulldogs cutting the margin to 71-59 with 5:48 remaining, Garcia helped out in another way as well.
SC State's full-court pressure was causing Tulsa problems in the second half. Garcia helped some in the backcourt as a player that was helping to get the ball into the frontcourt. Garcia had 2 assists and only one turnover in the game.
The second half deteriorated into a foul festival in the second half, with seemingly a foul called on almost every possession. This was due to the aggressive nature of South Carolina State (2-3).
Redshirt freshman guard P.J. Haggerty benefitted from the extreme nature of fouling, as he made an amazing 19 of 22 free throws. He seemed to be living at the line and set a Reynolds Center record for most made free throws in a game.
The 6-4 Haggerty led Tulsa in scoring with 28 points, and added 5 rebounds and 2 steals. He had 4 assists and only 2 turnovers in 27 plus minutes. And his plus/minus ratio of plus 28 was off the charts best on the team.
With a unique way of drawing fouls while driving to the basket, Haggerty is now 40 of 49 on free throws (81.6 percent). He is averaging a whopping 10 made free throws per game.
But even with Garcia and Haggerty having terrific games, SC State wouldn't go away. They scored 50 points in the second half.
"They were 15th in the country in steal percentage," Konkol said. "We knew that they would be swiping, and trapping, and doing a number of different things."
The pressure was clearly getting to Tulsa in the second half.
"Was very pleased with the way we took care of the basketball in the first half with just three turnovers," Konkol said. "The 14 turnovers, and the hurries, they really bothered us.
"This gave us so many opportunities to grow and learn from some different things. From the pressure, to making free throws. Basically, it turned into a free throw shooting contest late. They were scoring quickly. We've got to clean up some things in our pick-and-roll defense."
Also not helping was star point guard Cobe Williams being in foul trouble. Williams wasn't having his typical game, as he was held to 9 points and a rebound, as well as having 2 assists and 6 turnovers. But Williams did have 6 steals of his own.
The problem was Williams fouled out with 6:02 remaining and Tulsa holding a 70-55 lead. What would Tulsa do without its leader?
Haggerty slid over to point guard some, and freshman Tyshawn Archie soon afterward came in and did a terrific job with 8 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and a steal.
The fact that Tulsa survived without its leader in Cobe Williams turned out to be a benefit of the game.
"It's helpful, now," Konkol said of showing it can win without Williams in the game at the end. "At the time I wasn't looking at it that way. Not having a senior out there when the other team is surging is not a great feeling.
"Tyshawn Archie played big, big minutes down the stretch in moments that he'll always remember."
Also helping was the play of 6-5 juco transfer Carlous Williams, who had a plus/minus ratio of plus 20 - second best for TU, in just 20 minutes. He came off the bench to register 10 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and only one turnover.
Tulsa was 32 of 45 from the free throw line (71.1 percent), while the Bulldogs were only 10 of 20.
The tale of two different halves came down to a few things.
"We defended so much better in the first half," Konkol said. "They crash the boards with four players. They are a team that you have to make plays more than you have to run plays because of their denials, their pressures, their trapping, their switching.
"The whole difference (in halves) was we defended so much better in the first half than in the second."
One guy who was tough to defend, and had a career night, was 6-9 freshman center Drayton Jones. He scored 17 of his 19 points, as well of 5 of his 8 rebounds, in the second half, and had a plus/minus ratio of zero in 24 minutes. He was 6 of 7 from the field in the second half. Jones was only averaging 2.5 points and 5.3 rebounds, and had only been 2 of 14 from the field.
Another Bulldog who had a good night was 6-1 junior guard Michael Teal, who scored 14 points with a plus/minus ratio of plus 5 in 17 minutes. He was averaging 3.8 points.
Tulsa did do a terrific job on leading scorer, 6-6 Omar Croskey, who was averaging 13 points. Tulsa held him to zero points in 21 minutes.
The bottom line is that Tulsa got another win, and learned from it.
Tulsa's biggest test so far will be when it plays at Little Rock (1-3) Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. Little Rock has won its only home game of the season, a 71-66 decision against Texas State.